Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $75.20, but opened at $72.75. Lam Research shares last traded at $71.79, with a volume of 2,231,706 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on LRCX. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. B. Riley reduced their price target on shares of Lam Research from $132.50 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Lam Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Lam Research from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Lam Research from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.24.

Lam Research Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market cap of $90.69 billion, a PE ratio of 22.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $75.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.97.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The semiconductor company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.06 billion. Lam Research had a net margin of 26.02% and a return on equity of 50.60%. The company’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $6.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lam Research Co. will post 3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.77%.

Insider Activity at Lam Research

In other Lam Research news, CAO Christina Correia sold 647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $817.51, for a total value of $528,928.97. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,267 shares in the company, valued at $3,488,315.17. This trade represents a 13.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lantz Financial LLC purchased a new position in Lam Research during the second quarter valued at $212,000. &PARTNERS lifted its position in Lam Research by 69.9% during the 2nd quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 1,193 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the period. JB Capital LLC boosted its stake in Lam Research by 1.0% during the second quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 3,520 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,746,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in Lam Research by 7.6% in the second quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 269 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified LLC bought a new position in shares of Lam Research during the second quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Lam Research Company Profile

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products.